Christmas with Eric's Family

Eric's mom and dad- Marvin and Dianne. We were able to celebrate with Eric's family on Saturday. We had planned to go on Christmas Day, but with the roads still bad, we decided to postpone a day.

The grand kids, Cale, Owen, Zach and Shelby

Eric's sister, Lynne, her husband Brian and their kids, Owen and Shelby

What a wonderful Christmas! I always enjoy Christmas and really don't remember having a bad Christmas, but I would have to say this was one of my favorite all around Christmas's. Today, I was trying to decide why that was and I came to several conclusions. I am very happy in my life, wonderful husband, great kids, etc. I have finally found contentment in my life with a lot of help from Eric and spending time in prayer. I said no to some things pre Christmas- just so I wasn't uptight about getting things done. We were able to enjoy a day with each of our parents and celebrate Christmas with our extended families. And Zach and Cale are getting to ages- they are just fun to be around, Christmas Eve we all went into big church, we came home and we were all able to play Mario Cart. On Christmas Day, we played the wii together and we played games- this has always been my dream and now I am living it!

Christmas 2009

Christmas morning- Cale says, "Santa did come, Come look guys - we got presents"

We keep asking them what were their 3 favorite gifts and they keep changing. But, a few of the highlights from Santa/us are - they each got a Beta fish- closest thing to a pet that they will get for awhile, Mario and Sonic Olympics for the Wii, for Zach a pokemon game for his DS and Cale some cars from Cars and the games blokus and Mastermind.

The boys patiently waiting to open presents. Mom can be so annoying with her camera!

We hope everyone had a Very Merry Christmas. Due to the weather we stayed home all day. I do miss seeing extended family on Christmas, but I will have to admit I did enjoy being in my pajamas all day and staying home and playing.

Abbas Family Christmas 2009

We went to my parents house on Friday night and spent the night with them. On Saturday, we enjoyed the day celebrating both my mom's birthday and Christmas.

Cale and Zach had fun playing with cousins and of course opening presents.

We had a lot of fun this year playing games. Mom had found a game called Right Left Center- the best thing about the game- We all could play- even Cale. It's a simple game, but generated lots of laughs and even some new words from Cale- "Shakalacka Shackalacka"

The Beenken's - Sorry Cassie- I didn't realize you weren't looking!

The Fisher's

Eric was with us too, but didn't get many pictures of him- oops!

Snow Days December 2009

Having fun in the snow!

Getting ready to shovel! Eric and I don't really mind shoveling and our drive way really isn't that long. But, we really didn't have to do that much thanks to our nice neighbor with a blade on the front of his truck.

During the blizzard I didn't let the kids go outside, but they were so excited about sledding. So, if mom's not going to let us sled outside, we are going to do it inside.

Sorry about the lack of clothes on Cale, but he is a little furnace.

Bucket Filler or Bucket Dipper

A few years ago when I worked as a manager, I read this book and took a class about the above book. It really made sense to me. The basics of the idea is everyone walks around with an imaginary bucket- the good things in life, compliments, etc fill your bucket, the bad things in life, criticisms, etc dip into your bucket. For employees/people to do well in work/life when your imaginary bucket is mostly full. This concept helped our unit in several ways- one if that chronic complainer (which seems like there is one in every job) goes on and on about something- we could politely say- hey- your dipping in my bucket. A little easier to say that your annoying, complaining personality is really getting under my skin and if you don't close your mouth soon I may say something I regret. (not that we would really say that, but we would think it) We also had a board with drops- that coworkers/patients could write something nice about someone- a drop in there bucket.

Anyway, I was pleased to find the child version of this philosophy and bought/read the book for the boys last week and so far they are all over it- I am not sure how long it will last, but I am going to enjoy every minute it. Here are a few of our conversations from this past week.

#1

The boys and I are driving to go shopping and Zach is complaining about going, he's too cold, he's bored, etc. I tell him, "Zach when you keep complaining you are are dipping into my bucket and when you do that it makes me cranky." Zach - silence. 5-10 minutes later, Zach is happy looking around the store, saying nice things, he comes up to me, "mom, am I filling your bucket, now?" Of course, you just made my day!

#2

We are in a store and obvious that I should have had Cale take a nap, Cale is crying about something, I can't really hear him until we get outside, through his crying I hear him say, "I am not a bucket dipper, I just need to cry, I am not a bucket dipper, mom, am I a bucket dipper, I don't want to be a bucket dipper."

# 3

Zach and Cale are bickering in the back seat of the car, I ask the rhetorical question, not expecting an answer, just wanting to distract them from their latest issue, "Boys are you filling or dipping into each other buckets?" Zach says, "Cale is always dipping in my bucket because he doesn't ever stop talking." Eric and I could not stop laughing- Cale does talk ALOT. If he is quiet, he is either sick or sleeping.

Happy 4th Birthday Cale!

Once again I find it hard to believe how fast time is going- Cale turns 4. It seems like yesterday- Eric and I were in shock that we had yet another miracle on the way. Cale arrived on November 6 at 12:41 pm, he weighed 7lbs 9 ozs and was 21 inches long. He came 3 weeks early- we always jokingly give our friend Chuck credit for helping me go into labor. Eric, Chuck and I were at our good friends house in Grinnell and we were in a poker tournament and then on the way home late that night- Chuck and I started talking about politics and I was getting all worked up and we were even on the same side. That's when the contractions began and hours later the arrival of our bundle of joy- Cale Matthew Josten.

What can I say about Cale that I will want to remember down the road. Especially since I not doing that well at keeping up on his scrapbook. The first thing is that he such a lover and cuddler just like this picture shows. On a frequent basis- he will ask us- come sit by me in the rocking chair- just so he can cuddle with you- I love that. He is super soft hearted, if I raise me voice at him to scold him- he falls apart- sobs to the point I get worried he's not going to breath. There has been many times- he will walk to our "naughty couch" and sit himself down for a little time out. He loves his big brother, he is always wanting to wrestle with him, even though almost 100% of the time, it ends with Cale crying, but he initiates it day after day.

3 1/2 years old

Other things I want to remember- he talks constantly and I do mean constantly- if he's quiet I start to think a- he's about ready to fall asleep or b- he's getting sick. He talks about what's going to happen on the days of the week, his friends at daycare, he counts, he sings, he makes up stories and the list goes on and on and on.

Almost 3 years old

Cale is also in love with his dad. He wants to be just like him- there's many mornings and evenings that Cale has to change his clothes so he can be wearing the same color is Eric. If Eric has his shirt off- so does Cale, if Eric has his bedtime clothes on- Cale needs to get his bedtime clothes on and they have to be the same color as Eric.

Almost 2 Years old

Cale laughs a lot and likes to try and be funny. Most of the time this resorts in hearing lots of his bodily functions. It's still cute at 3, but now we may have to not laugh so much or I am afraid I will be getting notes from school about Cale trying to toot in the class to get his classmates to laugh.

One year old

Cale can also being a little obstinate- it has to be his idea. So far, we can make him think it's his idea and things go pretty smoothly, but I don't think we are not that far off and he'll have that figured out. We are also catching Cale fib a little- something that we will need to keep an eye on.

9 months old

It's kind of funny how things seem stressful at the time and then after some time passes they weren't really that big of deal after all. I remember having to go get Cale's CT scan of his head before he got his helmet. I'll admit it know- I was a little freaked out on how I was going to keep a 9 month old still for the test without sedating him. God handled it once again.

6 months

My what big head you have and also a handsome smile- in a mom's biased opinion, and now finally at age 4 he's starting to grow into the head he was born with.





Our precious second miracle.